Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DiasporaLink (DiasporaLink) Reporting period: 2017-02-01 to 2019-01-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project Along with the “Financial Statement”, this “Technical Report” has been prepared to be submitted timely, but unfortunately due to technical issues with the “EU Project Portal” we have been unable. A comprehensive “Technical Report” has been prepared for submission but since the Project Portal only allows submission of max. 7480 characters only the most essential part is presented below. For further detailed insight regarding project activities/status, summary of the context and overall objectives please study the full report submitted to the Project Advisor. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far A number of presentation activities have been conducted by the Coordinator as well as Beneficiaries and Partners in national and international fora particularly while being seconded at the host institutions. All submitted deliverables have been approved by REA and recently submitted deliverables are uploaded on the Project Portal awaiting REA’s approval. During the period appropriate actions have taken place in order to catch up with the delay in conducting some secondments so the project has reached more than the minimum required number of conducted secondments (which is conducting 50% secondments of the project’s first 2-year period). Some delays in conducting of the secondments have taken place. One of the main reasons for delay in conducting secondments has been finding alternative host institutions in order to substitute some of the Nigerian secondments after achieving approval from REA to substitute some of the secondments from beneficiary institutions to Nigeria (the challenged was based on social unrest in Nigeria and REA accepted the amendment). It has been a challenge but the Coordinator, after consulting with REA and approval of REA, finally found a solution for it and all partners have found a suitable substitution that lives up to scientific requirements. Colleagues’ heavy teaching duties, that has been planned prior to DiasporaLink project’s approval/funding by the REA have been another source of delay, but since the awareness of the REA approval partners have prioritized DiasporaLink and planned their other duties in accordance with DiasporaLink duties. A challenge that caused some of the delay is the issue of lack of secondments carried out by the Third Country - High Income – Partners. This challenge is naturally based on natural ground of not being eligible for EU-funding and since no grant is provided by the EU then there is no possibility for EU to sanction the above mentioned partners. These secondments represent 12% of the project’s total secondment activities which can be considered as a risk since there is no possibility to impose sanction on these partners. The issue was raised by the Coordinator at the “Mid-term Evaluation Meeting” and as a response to this challenge the Project Advisor informed us that this issue is not only a DiasporaLink specific issue but rather a common issue for many other RISE projects and known by REA.Another reason for delay in some secondments has been withdrawal of staff members at various Consortium member institutions. This is a natural cause since researchers (and practitioners) move on in their careers; there will always be a fluctuation in workforce (further we can inform that in a couple of cases, DiasporaLink also faced two researchers who retired and one unfortunately passed away). Consortium members have made sure that appropriate actions have taken place in order to brief the newly hired/appointed project members. It is important to highlight here that when recruiting new staff member, based on RISE guidelines for seconded staff, the newly hired staff can only be seconded after being hired in 6 months, which a natural reason for further delay in some of our secondments. The newly hired staff at some of the Consortium member institutions will during the “second 2-year project period” be fully eligible to take part in secondments, and in this way we will be able to catch up with delay. After the introduction of appropriate actions to avoid further delay and catch up with the previous delay, we have neither experienced any delays in the submission of the deliverables, implementation of the project, nor are any reasons apparent that will cause delays for the remainder of the project. Nevertheless, we will be vigilant and continually assess the progress of the project. The secondment activities that have taken place indicate that the gender issue is in balance, although a few more secondments have been carried out by the Consortium’s male members. All Consortium members have clear policy to focus on gender equality in connection with conducting secondments, but due to unforeseen staff change a few changes have taken place. All Consortium members are dedicated to make sure to encourage their female staff to take more active role in future secondments. According to the plan and previously submitted Gantt chart, 41% of the total secondments should be carried out in the “second 2-year project period”. Below a short overview on the status of WP’s - For further detailed insight regarding content of the WPs, detailed WP-activities/status etc., for further information please study the full report submitted to the Project Advisor.WP 2: Dissemination, All tasks mentioned in Part B for this WP are completed and the submitted report(s) are approved. WP 3: Establish a methodology for evaluating and monitoring entrepreneurship in migration corridors, All tasks mentioned in Part B for this WP are completed and the submitted report(s) are approved.WP 4: Impact of transnational organisation, All tasks mentioned in Part B for this WP are completed and the submitted report(s) are approved.WP 5: Diaspora super-diversity, All tasks mentioned in Part B for this WP are completed and the submitted report(s) are approved. WP 6: Drivers of circular migration, All tasks mentioned in Part B for this WP are completed and the submitted report(s) are approved.WP 7: - ICT as facilitator of TD, All tasks mentioned in Part B for this WP are completed and the submitted report(s) are approved.WP8: Influence from International and national trade regulations, All tasks mentioned in Part B for this WP are completed and the submitted report(s) are approved.WP 9: Monitoring and comparing migration corridors, All tasks mentioned in Part B for this WP are completed and the submitted report(s) are approved. WP 10: Ethics, All tasks mentioned in Part B for this WP as well as the “POPD” report is completed and the submitted report(s) are approved. Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) The impact of the project has so far been very successful, nonetheless taken into account a number of activities that embedes socio-economic impact and reaches wider societal implication. Noteworthy here is a number of activities that reaches beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact of the DiasporaLink project has been achived. A number of single-authored and co-authored scientific articles/papers/book reviews/book chapters have been published – a list of a selected number of them are presented in the full report submitted to the Project Adviosr (due to Copy Rights issues the publications are not uploaded on the Project Portal). For further detailed insight and access to project’s publication list, extraordinary E-learning courses and dissemination activities please refer to the full report submitted to the Project Advisor.
